“Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated and reckless. They understand that rarely does anyone fall for their tricks the first time. So they build a chain of multi-steps: the first call in order to obtain passport data is most often a “harmless representative of the cellular company” offering to extend the contract for using the number or SIM card. To do this, it is supposedly enough to give verbal consent and provide your passport number,” the expert explained.
Then, according to him, the second stage begins - the “government services portal operator” comes into play, reporting an attempt to hack into a citizen’s personal account.
“Like, they gave someone a passport number - and now, trouble is on the doorstep. To ensure “protection” it is necessary to name the code received in SMS. The potential victim enters the code, and the scammers actually gain access to the account on State Services,” the expert said.
Then a call comes from a bank “employee” who reports the need to withdraw all the money in the accounts and transfer it to a secure account, the specialist noted.
“And do this as quickly as possible, since unknown people are right now trying to gain access to a person’s savings. Linking incoming calls into one logical chain, but not understanding that they are coordinated from one center, the potential victim follows the lead of the scammers and makes transfers. Therefore, I will emphasize once again: you cannot enter any codes from SMS received from unverified sources, and safe accounts simply do not exist in nature. Be careful and vigilant,” Solovyov concluded.
Earlier, lawyer and public figure Natalya Weinberg told in a conversation with RT how to distinguish a debt collector from a fraudster.